The main union atBT, the
Communication Workers
Union (CWU)
, says it will go along with the 10,000 job cuts announced by the
firm, providing there are no compulsory redundancies.
BT has already indicated there will not be "compulsion" in the
jobs cull, but no doubt this will be scant reward for those
remaining in their job with bigger workloads.
Customers, whether companies buying IT services from BT or
consumers relying on potentially understaffed customer service
centres, will also not be celebrating.
Andy Kerr, the CWU deputy general secretary, said, "10,000 jobs
is a huge number and it will be difficult for BT to shed that
amount in one year.
"We will be holding BT to their statement, made by Ian
Livingstone this morning, that there will be no compulsion to meet
these cuts. The CWU will oppose any compulsory redundancies by
whatever means necessary."
He said, "We have a meeting set up with BT to discuss the detail
of how these reductions will be implemented. We will be emphasising
voluntary redundancies and natural wastage, but this is clearly far
from an ideal situation for BT employees."
BT plans to shed the staff by the end of March. Whilst most
trade unions stopped launching industrial disputes over "voluntary"
redundancies about 20 years ago, BT management will still see the
pushing through of such a major redundancy programme as a great
success.
However, the trap it will not want to fall for is axing highly
skilled engineers and technologists for short-term gain. Before the
advent of broadband it did just this, and then found it did not
have enough experienced heads to deliver leading edge multimedia
services.